Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About CosmoNewanda

CBR 9
CBR11 participant

Still a geek and still a photographer. However, this year cancer has decided to make it personal. At Christmas my Dad announced that he has stage 1 throat cancer. On July 10, the doctor declared he is in remission!

CosmoNewanda's Reviews:

The Book is more Interesting than the Content

The Enemies of Books by William Blades

by 1 Comment

I picked this book up in an antique bookstore in Tokyo. I bought it mostly for the title, expecting a history of censorship, which is a topic I’ve always been interested in. What I got was more literally interpretation of enemies. Blades covers fire, water, vermin and dust as if they are free thinking enemies actively planning the destruction of books. His focus is entirely on the books as items that carry knowledge and not as special items in themselves. He says, “The value of […]

Each person is a new adventure and some of those adventures are disturbing

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

by 1 Comment

This book, is a very practical and blunt statement about the part of life people don’t want to think about. People die, and when that happens someone has to take the time and the care to prepare the body. You will learn quickly if this book is for you or if it isn’t. It is gross, and it has a morbid sense of humor that is obviously needed to get through a job where death is in your face every day, sometimes quite literally. Some […]

What’s the cheat code to get a sequel?

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier

by 1 Comment

I’ve been playing video games as long as I can remember. When I was a child I would walk to the laundry mat/videorama to rent new games. I was lucky to own a couple of titles, but if it wasn’t a birthday or Christmas, I had to use my allowance to rent. The game boxes filled two cases, facing forwards from floor to ceiling. There must have been 50 titles to choose from each promising a new magical adventure. I don’t think I ever gave […]

How I Learned to Accept my Hangover

A Short History of Drunkenness: How, Why, Where, and When Humankind Has Gotten Merry from the Stone Age to the Present by Mark Forsyth

by 2 Comments

I don’t know how I found this book, but somehow while freezing on the train platform in Tokyo on New Year’s morning, I located this little gem. I started to read it on my phone, as I stood huddled in a train car trying to not get elbowed by too many hungover locals on their way to see family. I’m told by a coworker that it’s a tradition in Japan. First you get hammered on New Year’s Eve and then travel to see your family […]

Ocean of Testosterone

by 1 Comment

I bought this book for the title. What I got was an insightful look at the human condition as seen through the eyes of a fellow service member. I joined the Navy at a young age and it’s very different from the Army. Yet many of the experiences William’s describes are similar to those I’ve encountered in my career. Reading this book felt like I was both watching the early years of my career and learning about a whole new world that is the Army. […]

Can slasher flicks be feminist?

by 4 Comments

Have you ever wondered about the gender representation of character types in horror flicks? How about the existence of female empowerment in rape revenge flicks? Does watching a rape or murder from the from the right perspective force men to identify with women? This book may help you answer those questions. I like most people had the preconception that horror films and their sub-genre slasher flicks were just escapism. In her book Men, Women, and Chain Saw: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, Carol J. Clover […]



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